Enquiry

,—according to the modern constructions, signifies Sedition. In the old English dictionary, it was held a Constitutional Privilege, derived from Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, for the people to enquire into the conduct of Kings or Ministers, and into the errors of their government; but all things now seem in a state of revolution, and, according to Mr. P-tt's new code, which is implicitly adopted by all the legal courts through the three kingdoms, enquiry implies disloyalty, sedition, or treason, and they who are audacious enough to claim this ancient obsolete privilege, expose themselves to the penalties of fine, pillory, or imprisonment, and if in Scotland, of transportation for fourteen years to Botany Bay. The people, however, begin to murmur at the revolution that the word has undergone, and to think this is not altogether a free country.